A CocoRosie concert is a very different experience in all aspects. They look and sound totally unique, and even their audience differs from all other concerts I have attended. It must have been the first time for me where the female part of the audience were in majority. And I must say I really enjoyed the lack of testosterone in front of the stage.

The sisters last album, Tales of a grasswidow, is my favourite album from the band. Therefore it was also one of those rare occasions when you really wished that the band would perform a lot of material from their latest release.

On stage they were joined by two extra musicians. The human beatbox Tez, who perform most of the rhythms during the show, is something really extraordinary. He has joined forces with the sisters before, but he was given more room during this show then when I saw them a couple of years ago in Malmö.

The show was beautiful, queer, weird and wonderful in all aspects. It was a long time since I was this moved and exhilarated by a concert. Thank you very mush for a magical evening.

It is quite fascinating to see a band on stage were the members are the same age as my parents... and I'm not exactly a youngster myself (45 years old).

Picturing my dad on a stage making obscene moves, cursing and singing about drugs is quite impossible. But for Iggy Pop and The Stooges is just another day at work.


Thankfully they seem to enjoy work and gives a wonderful performance. I love to hear them play their classic songs like I wanna be your dog, No fun, Cock in my pocket and Fun house. I wonder if we will see band like The Hives and The Sounds perform when they reach 60+ years? I hope so.

We have just finished a new video with my band Batch ID for the song Ni skrämmer inte mig. The video is animated with the PS3 game WWE'13.

For me Crystal Castles has always been a big case of opposites attract. The extrovert and beautiful Alice Glass versus the introvert, almost hidden maestro Ethan Kath.

The music seems to be composed of sounds that played solo sounds broken and hostile, but when mixed together often becomes both beautiful and powerful.

The live experience is very much in the same vein as their music. The lightshow is not primarily their to make the artists look good; the lights are their to make interesting light effects and has their own part to play at the show. Sometimes it is almost painful for the eyes when the lights hit you at full force. But it works very well with the Crystal Castle concept and turns the show into a very interesting sonic and visual experience. The band is also very generous and plays their most popular songs from all three albums.

The festival Way Out West in Göteborg is a festival that always give me mixed emotions. Some years it is the greatest festival in the world and some years it's only confusing.

2012 was not one of the great years for me. The early bookings was very promising with bands like Refused and Florence and the Machine. But much of the later bookings was either not my cup of tea or proved to be a bit disapointing.

One of the acts I had hopes for was oldschool rappers De la Soul. Sadly they seemed very old and tired. They had almost turned into a parody and could have shared the stage with Markoolio that day.

Bands like First Aid Kit and Laleh delivered great performances, but lacks any kind of edge and prescence to make it interesting.

The two main stages has faults when the most popular bands performs. It's hard to see anything from the back and the construction for the mixing space is very obstructing.

But there was also some highlights during the 2012 edition of WOW.

Refused did a really energetic and cool performance. They really seemed to enjoy themselfs and I finally had a chance to see them perform. Enjoyed every minute of it.

Florence and the Machine also did good and delivered a nice show. And what a voice she has...

I also had a very good time at Annedalskyrkan (a church) on thursday with Purity Ring and Mazzy Star. Purity Ring was a new acquaintance. They played a nice set with lots of cool lightning. Always fun to find new bands to check out further.

Mazzy Star was very dreamy and ambient. There music was very fitting in the church and they choose to perform with almost no lighting. It was very nice just to close the eyes and really listen to beautiful music.

2012 headliners was Kraftwerk. I will probably upset all my friends and peers now by saying that I thought they where really boring. Their music is magical and they sound great, but their performance is crap. I know that part of the idea of Kraftwerk is anti-rock; but if a part of rock is about having fun and beeing entertaining; then anti-rock becomes just boring.

For me any performance is a meeting between performer and audience and an exchange of energy. If the performing part refuses to take part in this exchange it kind of dies. Sure the minimalistic stageing, the lighting and projections is very nicely done... but it also gets very repetative and dull after a couple of songs.

And 3D effects??? Kiss tried this back in 1998 during the Psycho Circus tour. If Kiss have tried something and later thought it a bad idea, it's probably a good idea to not go there. I never wanna have to wear 3D goggles at a concert again!

To sum it up, 2012 was not a great year for Way Out West. Adding a third day could have been a good idea if they had booked more interesting bands, this year it only made the program feel watered.

Alice played in Göteborg in august at Liseberg. Liseberg is an amusement park and the perfect setting for Alice's show.

The show was a classic Alice Cooper show with focus on the many classic songs from the 70's and early 80's.

What once was on the edge and shocking is today only entertaining. The make-up, leather, blood, snake and guillotine only make you smile. Looking at the audience, noticing the mix in ages raging from early teens to senior citizens, you really get the feeling that Alice 2012 is wholesome family entertainment.

The only time I have an reaction other then smiles and joy is during the song Cold Ethyl, where Alice gets abusive with a female doll. Although I know that the song is a very toung-in-cheek song about necrophilia and keeping a lover in the fridge, it's hard to not read in violence against women in the act. But at the same time, I am happy that I still can get something that feels a bit provocative from the show.

The band is almost identical from the last tour a few years back. They are really tight, and the young musicians brings alot of good energy to the music. I havent heard Alice sounding this good since the trash-tour in 1989. The band even nailed the hard to sing harmonics in Poison.

My favorite songs is as allways the old classics like 18, Is it my body, Under my wheels and Muscle of love. It's also really cool that they do Feed my Frankenstein, with a really large Alice-monster stomping on stage.

Even if Alice Cooper is pretty harmless and more of a Las Vegas halloween show these days, it's really entertaining and the music is some of the best rock songs ever written. I only wish that the show felt less safe and less coreographed. Alice's every move seems as a pose, but maybee a whole life playing rock'n'roll does that to you. And what I really love about Alice is that she really gives the audience what they wish for.

I'm really starting to like Liseberg as a venue. The big stage worked very well for a artist like Lenny Kravitz, and now I am really looking forward to see Alice Cooper on the same stage later this summer.

I had no expectations other then to hearAre you gonna go my way this evening. After releasing a new album, Black and white America as late as last year, I thought he would mostly play songs from that album and maybee a handful of his earlier hits.

Boy was I wrong. I think Lenny played every hit he have had during his 20+ year career. And I was impressed with how many excellent song he have written since the debut with Let love rule back in 1989.

The hits just came blazing of the stage, delivered by a very tight and super competent band; Always on the run, Mr Cab driver, American woman, It ain't over 'til it's over, Fields of joy, Stand by my woman... to name a few.

There was a couple of songs from the new album, Rock star city light and the title track Black and white America that worked really well in the set.

And at the end we got a kick ass version of Are you gonna go my way and a spectacular encore with Let love rule with a pretty funky jam in the middle lasting a good 15+ minutes.

Lenny Kravitz live at Liseberg in Göteborg, Sweden.
2012-06-13


Video by MCruee 73